Deadly Decoy by Poch Peralta (best book clubs txt) 📕

Joe was watching them, hidden nearby. When the stranger came shoulder to shoulder with Mastela, he reached for his jacket pocket.
‘Hey!’ Joe shouted at them. His gun already in his left hand, he ran towards them about twenty feet away.
When the man saw Joe, he scampered away.
Joe started walking towards Mastela and tucked his gun in the back of his waistband.
‘What the blazes was that all about?’ the puzzled Mastela asked.
‘That man just attempted to rob you of the blueprints.’ M glanced at the papers in his hand. ‘I’m Joe Picasso. Me and my men are always tailing you so don’t worry.’
‘Hey Joe! You might have just saved my life.’
‘Just part of the job. It would be good for you if you keep this to yourself—my identification and what we’re doing. If the bad guys learn about me, they would be more cautious and harder to pin. If you’re not carrying, I suggest you arm yourself. For extra protection you know.’
‘Sure. Whatever you say. You wanna drink somewhere?’
‘Thanks. But I’m still not free yet.’
‘So these papers I’m carryin’ is a bomb huh?’
Joe just shrugged then walked away.

Joe informed Bravo of what just happened.
‘So now our cover’s blown.’ Bravo said.
‘Maybe. If the perp recognized my face. Or remembered it.’
‘Then you must quit tailing Mastela yourself. Let me and the rest of our guys do that.’
‘Right. But the next try could be bloody.’

The next try turned bloody all right. This time, there were two men waiting for Mastela two doors away from his house. Before Mastela could enter his driveway, the men blocked his way with their car. The passenger jumped out holding a gun. He pointed it at Mastela and ordered him to hand over the blueprints. Mastela couldn’t do anything but do that.
This time, it was Elvis Pico who was watching, hidden in his car. He got out and shouted at the goon. The goon fired at him. Mastela took advantage of the distraction. He got halfway out of his car and fired successively at the goon who tried to run but fell down.
The other one inside the car shot at Mastela while Elvis shot at him mainly to divert attention. The car’s windshield shattered a bit. The driver goon decided it was a no-contest and sped away.

‘Both Mastela and Elvis were unharmed,’ Bravo told Joe. ‘And surprise. The perp Mastela shot is an AWOL army. Probably dying at the hospital.’
‘That would make Deramos worried and edgy.’
‘And our cover blown. Now that the LPPD is investigating, it would be a miracle if our office isn’t mentioned in the news.’


Deramos flew in his own helicopter to a nearby island. So Joe P couldn’t do a tail job on that. Not enough resources or too expensive.
Conrad Espares is an executive or maybe the owner of Sierra Leone Aire. He asked the general for this meeting. They were now seated inside Espares’ mansion.
Although handsome, the exec’s face was grim.
‘You told me your men are professionals. How come they can’t even snatch some f_____g papers from one man?’
‘Not exactly one man Conrad. They tried two times. Both times, Two different intruders barged in and fouled up the jobs.’
‘And you think that’s coincidence? I expect you know who the intruders were. Or am I wrong?’
‘I was waiting for the news if they would be identified. But I can learn from the cops fast when I get home.’
‘You better learn fast then. The police or those intruders might trace your two idiots to you—and then to me. I won’t risk my name because of your unprofessionalism.’ Deramos wondered if that was a threat.
‘Conrad, what happened was just pure bad luck to us even if the intruders were pros. They didn’t expect the foreman would fire while the intruder got them distracted.’
‘It’s still incompetence to me Deramos. Now if you don’t have anything more to say.’

General Deramos had been missing for two days.
‘Are the police on the search?’ asked Bravo.
‘If not, they will be soon,’ said Joe.
‘You think he was silenced?’
‘Or maybe he sensed a threat and went hiding in another country…
‘Do you remember a case five years ago about another air company? Or two airlines. A group of employees formed their own airline. When the firm started to rake in money, two stockholders and a staff got murdered one by one. The case was solved when one of their stockholders was caught. He was killing the other holders so that when he holds the biggest share, he could control the company and make deals under the table. He was even suspected of taking a bribe from their mother airline to sabotage their new airline. So that when the new one becomes bankrupt, their mother company could buy it. The suspicion wasn’t proven true though.’
‘Well, compared to this new case now, that seemed small-time.’
‘Yeah. You know, I’ve got a feeling things will start running fast now,’ Joe said.
‘Yeah. Me too.’

Since most of the plane parts already had duplicates and spares, and its whole plan already edited perfect, it took just about four months before it was almost finished.
Two days before the plane was finished, something fast happened.
‘You better get here fast Joe,’ Elvis said on the mobile phone. ‘A Madrid Airways van is parked near the hangar. The Madrid office told me it wasn’t supposed to be there and I spotted two guys casing the area.’
‘Fifteen minutes.’ Joe said and hung up. It was 9.20 AM.

When Joe and Bravo were about three meters from the hangar, there was a man pointing a gun at a security guard while someone was driving the plane out of the hangar.
Joe parked his car in front of the plane to block it. The goon on the ground shot the guard at the head. Elvis ordered the goon to drop it but the goon swung his gun. Elvis shot him in the face. At the same time, the goon in the plane stood up and fired at Joe. Joe and Bravo rolled out of the car. Elvis wisely ran for cover—he was too exposed. Bravo got behind the car and returned fire while Joe rolled sideways and took aim. Moving now in synchronized telepathy. Like a rehearsed move. When the goon raised his head, Joe fired twice and connected. The goon slumped twisted on the seat.

They waited for the police then Joe, Bravo and Elvis were taken to a LPPD station for questioning.
Colonel Sarmento, the station chief, was a big man. Broad shouldered and about six feet two. He was sixty-two.
‘Who do you think you are making trouble in my area without asking permission first? He addressed the three PI’s seated in front of him.
Joe explained to him about baiting the plane snatchers.
‘So you see sir, we didn’t intentionally, I mean deliberately tried to ignore you.’ Joe said. There was silence for a moment.
Then Sarmento said, ‘I heard one of you is a Bravo.’
‘That’s me sir,’ Bravo said.
‘You related to the retired chief?’
‘My uncle sir.’
‘Hmm.’ The colonel paused, scanning the three detectives. ‘You can go unpunished this once but the next time, I’ll go for your badges. Be aware that the police are now into this. I expect you to coordinate with us. You can go now.’
The three stood up.
‘Hey Bravo!’
‘Yes sir?’
‘Tell your uncle I say hello.’
‘No problem sir.’
Because of the incident, the plane building was postponed and delayed.

‘The two dead guys were AWOL soldiers too.’ Joe said.
‘Smells like a private army,’ said Bravo. ‘Means that Deramos is still around and commanding.’
‘Maybe not. We still don’t know if their connected to Deramos.’
They learned later they weren’t.

Now Joe was stumped. Deramos was still missing. The dead AWOL soldiers can’t be traced to anybody else. The only lead left was the exec of Sierra Leone Aire himself. And they still have no solid evidence against him.
Suddenly, there was news that SLA was mass-producing a light trainer plane.

When Bravo arrived at the office, he was surprised to se Joe smiling like a monkey. Joe almost never smiled while working.
‘Hey man. I think I just found a way to nail the bastard.’ Joe greeted.
‘Yeah? So tell me.’
Joe told him. Then phoned the Federal Bureau.

The next day, two Fed agents and Joe went to Espares’ office at SLA. They brought Morayta’s blueprints.
‘We need to see the blueprints of the plane you’re manufacturing,’ one of the feds said to Espares as they flashed their ID’s.
‘May I know what’s this all about?’ Espares asked.
Joe said, ‘It’s about the murder of colonel Morayta.’
Espares’ face whitened. The feds seemed glad.
‘So who’s Col. Morayta?’
‘We need to see the prints first.’
Espares picked up a phone and said, ‘Bring me the plan of the new plane.’
We all waited in silence. The blueprints were brought.
‘May we use your desk sir?’ A fed asked.
‘Sure. Go ahead.’ Espares looked puzzled.
The feds spread out both Morales’ and Espares’ prints and compared them. While the feds were busy, Joe slyly watched Mr. E. who was getting paler and paler while he was getting gladder and gladder. Espares might get desperate and do something dangerous. After more than a minute, one fed said, ‘Got it. The prints are the same.’
‘The other fed said to Espares, ‘You’re under arrest.’
‘What?!’
Joe said, ‘You stole Morayta’s design. You thought we were building a different model because the crew was all new so you thought you were safe. Then you had Deramos killed (a bluff) because we were getting hot on his trail and he was goofing up. You blundered when you manufactured Morayta’s plane.’ Joe glanced at the feds. ‘I thought my bait failed. It worked a beauty after all.’ Joe Picasso said proudly.